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“You should just give up,” Touya says when Keigo stalks into the house and flops down on the floor in front of the TV. “Maybe he’s in witness protection after accidentally using his quirk on you.”
“I don’t even know his family name,” Keigo whines.
Kumi looks up from her colouring book. “It’s okay, Papa,” she tells Keigo. “Reiji’s mom says you can always adopt one of her foster kids.”
“She acts like any of those kids want to be adopted after they start living with her,” Keigo grumbles.
“My friends got adopted,” Kumi says.
“Yeah. By Ichika.”
“There are always adoption agencies,” Touya offers. “We’re legal citizens now. Plus, we raised Kumi well, so there’s proof that we’d be good parents.”
Keigo whines unintelligibly.
Kumi pats his head. “You’re doing great, Papa. I believe in you.”
“Thank you, angel.”
Kumi turns to Touya. “When I had a sleepover with Daichi at Natsu’s house, he gave me a book that Shoto got from Katsuki to give to me and I was reading it yesterday and it says that there are some people with flame quirks that don’t just create fire, but they can also use it and uh . . . what the word? Manipulate it.”
Touya shrugs. “I guess.”
“Do you think I could use my fire to make wings for myself so I can fly too?”
Touya thinks about Kumi’s little torches that she makes for herself when it’s dark and she doesn’t want to turn the light on. “Maybe.”
“Can I try?”
“Sure, but not inside and not anywhere near Shu’s vegetable garden.”
Kumi’s mouth falls open. “You’re not gonna tell me I can only do it when you’re watching?”
“Birdie, you’re eight years old. If you had my kind of problems, we’d know by now.”
“Yes! I’m gonna go try while we wait for everyone to get here.”
“Change out of your dress first!” Keigo calls as she sprints to her room. “Jin will cry if it gets burned!”
“Okay!”
“What’s Kumi doing?” Himiko asks as Keigo helps her look for the candles.
“She’s trying to make wings for herself with her quirk.”
“Unsupervised?”
“Touya said she could.”
“Oh. That’s nice.”
The doorbell rings, signaling the arrival of the first of Kumi’s guests. Keigo leaves Himiko to keep searching while he opens the door.
“Hi!” Sana and Moriko shout together.
“Hi, guys. Kumi’s in the backyard playing with her quirk.”
“Awesome!” Sana says, rushing in as soon as Keigo steps out of the way. Moriko walks after her brother, much calmer.
“This is for Kumi,” Hekima says, handing Keigo a wrapped box. She holds out a gift bag. “And this is for Jin. Just a little thank you for taking care of my nuisances every day.”
“I’ll tell him,” Keigo says. “Would you like to come in?”
“Oh, no, that’s all right. My husband and I are going out on a date while the kids are here for Kumi’s birthday!”
Keigo smiles. “Well, I hope you have fun.”
Hekima gives Keigo a warm smile before she leaves. As the morning drags on, the rest of Kumi’s friends arrive in trickles.
Daichi arrives with his mother and Natsuo, which was probably for the best, because as soon as he got inside, Natsuo disappeared into Tenko’s room and the sounds of Mario Kart starting up wafted out into the living room. Minami Sakura is sweet and kind — until Touya snarks at her about something and she snarks back and Touya is too surprised to keep going. She fits in perfectly.
A while after, Kurogiri gets a text from Atsuhiro and opens a portal to receive Atsuhiro, Ichika and Kumi’s four friends.
Enji, Rei and Fuyumi arrive together, with a gift each for Kumi. A few minutes later, Shoto arrives, pretending not to see Katsuki dragging Syaoran and Eito after him. He claimed to have been ordered by Kyoka to ensure they got to Kumi’s birthday party safely and to return them in the condition she had left them.
And just as Kumi asked if Kaoru wasn’t coming, Shinsou arrived, dropped her off, and left. He has no interest in arguing with Tenko about who Aizawa likes better. (He claims it’s him. He refuses to hear otherwise.)
Rumi, Iori and Kosuke also turn up with presents for Kumi, complaining about their morning shifts all running overtime.
Kumi is absolutely delighted to be surrounded by so many people as she sits behind her cake and they all sing for her.
Himiko records the whole thing for her video diary.
Once the army of children have eaten their cake and watched Kumi open her presents, they all decide to go out into the garden, leaving some breathing room in the house.
Katsuki flops down on one of the couches. “My hand is cramping,” he complains.
“Shut up,” Keigo says. “I haven’t been asked for a single autograph from any of them.”
Katsuki grins. “Maybe you’re just a boring hero. Even the rabbit got asked.”
“Shoto, I’m going to strangle your husband.”
“Try, feather-fuck.”
Shoto ignores them, as he does every time Keigo and Katsuki are in the same room. It was a lesson he learned from Touya.
“Are they always like this?” Ichika asks.
“Unfortunately,” Atsuhiro grumbles.
“You don’t even live here anymore,” Touya says. “You don’t get to complain.”
“I do live here!”
“Yeah, right. You spend more time at Ichika’s foster home than you do here.”
“That’s because the kids there treat me better than you and Jin.”
Touya shrugs. “Fair enough.”
“I heard Keigo wants to turn my room into a nursery for the new baby.”
“That’s if he gets a new baby. I think Kei’s half an inch away from putting out an official search for the poor man.”
“How’s the search going?” Iori asks, planting herself between Katsuki and Keigo. “Miko says you’re hitting dead ends.”
Keigo folds his arms and pouts.
“Have you considered asking for help? A lot of us see a lot of strangers. Maybe someone might stumble upon this mysterious Souta guy.”
“That’s not a bad idea, candyfloss.”
“Candyfloss?” Iori asks.
“Your hair looks like purple candyfloss. And the vampire likes eating candy, doesn’t she?”
“I hate you,” Iori tells Katsuki. “Don’t ever come to my hospital. I will break my oath to hit you.”
“Noted,” Katsuki says, rolling his eyes. He leans back so he can see Keigo. “But I’m serious. It’s not a bad idea. You can cover more ground like that.”
“I guess,” Keigo says.
“Have you thought about names?” Iori asks.
Keigo scoffs. “Let’s just focus on finding the guy first.”
“Okay, but I have an entire notebook dedicated to lists of names alongside their meanings and origins, so just give me a shout when you’re ready.”
Keigo smiles. “I will.”
“Let’s play a drinking game!” Kosuke announces. “Every time you hear Kumi tell one of the kids that she’s awesome, take a shot.”
“I’m down!” Rumi says.
Jin leans towards Fuyumi. “Come help me hide the alcohol.”
Kosuke pouts. “Mean. Hey, where’s my favourite lizard?”
“Hiding,” Shuichi’s voice sounds from under the dining table. “There’s too many of you in my house.”
“Leave them alone,” Tenko says with a grin, patting Kosuke’s shoulder. “He’s becoming a hermit. You can go talk to your future mother-in-law instead.”
Rei smiles in amusement until Kosuke plops himself down next to her. “I’m very bored right now.”
“Tenko!” Jin hisses, face red.
“Jin,” Rei says, “do you see me as a mother figure?”
Jin looks away.
“He does,” Kosuke, the little snitch, tells her. “He says you feed him nice food and you let him sleep over after family dinners and you’re very nice to him. He doesn’t like Endeavor, though.”
“What did I do?” Enji asks.
Jin wordlessly points at Touya when Enji looks at him.
Enji raises his hands in surrender.
Conversation indoors goes along smoothly until Syaoran rushes inside and shouts for everyone’s attention. “Kumi and Kao set a tree on fire.”
“Again?” Keigo cries, rushing outside. “Kumi, what did I say about using your quirk?!”
“The tree came out of nowhere!” Kumi cries defensively, watching Daichi try to put the fire out with his sand quirk.
“That tree has been there since before you were even born, birdie,” Touya says, watching from the patio as several people try to put the fire out.
Rumi glances at Fuyumi, Shoto and Rei. “Hey, ice quirks. Put out the fire.”
“Oh, right,” Shoto says, starting towards the steps down to the garden.
Before he gets there, Aki sneezes and the tap nearby bursts, showering the tree and everyone in the garden with water.
“I thought she had a metal-based quirk,” Ichika says. She turns to Atsuhiro. “You owe me a six-pack of donuts.”
“Sure.”
“Best birthday ever!” Kumi shouts, thoroughly drenched.
Touya sighs. He’s going to have so many sick people to take care of.